Week 10 - Venezuela
PARTS 1 and 2. Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution
Associated Readings
Handouts ("Course Documents on Bb")
Venezuela, which shares borders with Colombia, Brazil, and Guyana, lies along the Caribbean Sea. Between the Andes Mountains in the northwest and the Guiana Highlands in the southeast lie central plains as well as a coastal region, with the country's climate varying from tropical to temperate.
Most U.S. citizens don’t know much about Venezuela. If they do, they may have heard about its recent--and very controversial--president, Hugo Chávez, who we’ll discuss at length below. Or, they might have heard of Simón Bolívar, a Venezuelan military and political leader who led multiple struggles in Latin America for independence from the Spanish Empire during the 19th century. And then there are the beauty pageants: In international competitions such as the Miss Universe competition, Venezuela continues to produce winners. Finally, many of you might buy gas at Citgo, which is owned by a major Venezuelan oil producer.
Colonial Past and Recent Political History
The Spanish established the first permanent settlement in Venezuela in 1522, but until the 1700s the colony remained largely undeveloped. Venezuela then became an important world producer of cacao, and Caracas emerged as a center of commerce. After several military battles with Spain under the leadership of Simón Bolívar, Venezuela declared independence in 1821. In 1830, the fledgling nation withdrew from its association with Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador in the Republic of Gran Colombia to become fully autonomous.
Throughout the nineteenth century Venezuela experienced many political upheavals. A series of authoritarian governments in the twentieth century brought more stability, with petroleum exports fueling economic expansion. In 1958, a two-party democratic system was introduced, but an economic crisis in the 1980s brought renewed unrest. In 1998, Hugo Chávez, who had been jailed six years earlier for his part in an unsuccessful coup, was elected president. I’ll have much more to say about this below.
Ethnicity and Cultural Practices
As is typical in Latin America, Spanish, native/indigenous, and African heritages have all contributed to Venezuelan life and culture, including language, art, food, and music. About half of today’s population is of mixed ethnic heritage, that is, mestizo or mulatto. About 85% of the national population (about 27 million as of 2011) live in urban areas in the northern portion of the country and currently resides in large cities such as the capital Caracas, cities that are concentrated in Venezuela's northern coastal mountain strip. Both life expectancy (73.9 years) and literacy rates (95.1%) are high. The vast majority (96%) of Venezuelans identify as Catholics, although many practice other forms of Christianity (for example, Evangelicals).
According to the World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Venezuela hosted a population of refugee and asylum seekers from Colombia numbering 252,200 in 2007. 10,600 new asylum seekers entered Venezuela in 2007. Between 500,000 and one million illegal immigrants are estimated to be living in the Venezuela.
II. Understanding Chávez and Chavismo
In your readings from Week 1, you've already had an introduction to Venezuela's deceased president, Hugo Chávez. The reading by Tom Chodor provides a detailed historical account of Chávez and his significance. As you may remember, Chavez became president after many years as a career military officer. During the 1980s, he increasingly opposed the government (and the Venezuelan political system more generally) which he found corrupt and undemocratic. In 1992, he led an unsuccessful coup attempt out of opposition to massive social spending cuts which had recently been made by the government in its structural adjustment initiatives. After two years, Chávez was released from prison and by 1998 had achieved popularity sufficient to get him elected president. An opposition movement attempted to remove him from power both through an unsuccessful military coup in 2002 and a recall referendum in 2003. The 2002 coup is the subject of the film you will watch during this week's film forum (“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”). During his time in office, Chavez was accused of manipulating the electoral process and instituting constitutional changes, including the end of presidential term limits, to retain power.
As president, Chávez undertook a massive social project known as the "Bolivarian Revolution," named after Venezuela’s most famous historical figure, Simón Bolívar. Following an ideology he and his followers called “Bolivarianism” and “Socialism for the 21st century,” his Bolivarian Revolution entailed the implementation of a new constitution, the formation of new initiatives in participatory democracy (more on this below), and the nationalization of several key industries (most notably, the oil industry). Chávez loyalists are known as Chavistas. If you have any friends from Venezuela, you will find out very quickly if they are Chavistas or not, as most Venezuelans have very strong feelings about this man!
A vocal critic of capitalism and in particular neoliberalism, Chávez was a prominent opponent of the United States' foreign policy, which he described as imperialistic. Allying himself strongly with the socialist governments of Fidel and then Raúl Castro in Cuba, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, his presidency was seen as a part of the leftist "pink tide" sweeping Latin America.
Advocating forms of direct, participatory democracy (rather than representative democracy), Chávez introduced a variety of initiatives which got ordinary citizens involved in decision-making around local resources. These initiatives included "Communal Councils" and worker-managed cooperatives. Funded from oil revenues, the Bolivarian missions aimed at expanding public services through the construction of free medical clinics, implementing educational programs to increase literacy, and administering food and housing subsidies to poor people.
Now is a good time to watch "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (film forum).
III. U.S. Perception of Chavez
To say relations between the U.S. government and Hugo Chávez were strained is an understatement. In the eyes of mainstream politicians in the U.S., both Democrats and Republicans, Chávez was perceived of as an irritating troublemaker at best--and, at worst, a dangerous, undemocratic populist with ties to terrorist regimes elsewhere in the world. (See more on populism below.)
Watch Chávez's 2006 speech at the United Nations:
Now, a clip from his weekly TV broadcast, also from 2006, in which Chávez taunts President George W. Bush further:
Finally, here's Barbara
Walters interviewing Chavez on ABC in 2007:
Chávez met U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time at the Summit of the Americas in 2009, where Chávez expressed a desire for better relations between the two countries. However, the Venezuelan president regularly engaged in anti-American rhetoric, and relations continue to be strained.
IV. Understanding the Appeal of Chavez
Even though Chavez passed away in 2013, his appeal and his followers remain strong, even as Venezuelan society becomes increasingly polarized. How do we account for the massive popularity of Hugo Chávez among Venezuela’s poor? Certainly, many poor people welcomed Chávez’s use of oil revenues to fund social services such as health clinics and schools. But these material benefits alone are not sufficient to capture the distinctive appeal of this man’s style of leadership. To help better understand this, we’ll use a concept from political science (the IR majors among you are probably already familiar with it)--populism. While populist leaders aren’t limited to Latin America, some of the most well-known and heavily-studied populists have been from this part of the world. (The discussion below corresponds closely to the “populism” handout available under “Course Documents” in Bb.)
Let’s define populism as a style of leadership “characteristically involving a proclaimed rapport with ‘the people’, a ‘them-and-us’ mentality, and (often, though not necessarily) a period of crisis and mobilization” (Alan Knight, 1998).
Populist leadership is typically based on personal charisma and skills as an orator--leaders who know how to give a stirring and inspiring speech. Think of Chávez’s “You are a donkey, Mr. Danger!” performance from his weekly radio program (clip above).
Populist leaders seek a direct bond with their mass following. They lead personal movements rather than well-organized parties. Again, Chávez is a good example: If you take him out of the "Bolivarian revolution," there would be nothing left.
Populism relies on mass mobilization--getting their followers out into the streets.
Populist leaders often have military backgrounds. Part of their appeal is that of the military caudillo, or strongman, who promises to deliver justice for the "people" by firm measures against the "exploiters."
When used to describe a leader, the term “populist” almost always has negative connotations. (Typically, it’s used to describe a politician who seeks popularity through appealing to the baser instincts of voters.) Historically, it is in Latin America where populism has had the greatest and most enduring influence. Its heyday was from the 1920s to the 1960s, as industrialization and the growth of cities got under way in the region. Against this backdrop, populism was the means by which the urban masses--the middle and working classes--were brought into the political system.
As you get a grasp on the concept of populism, resist the temptation to decide whether it is ultimately "good" or "bad." At the end of the day, populist leadership is deeply contradictory: On the one hand, it does focus attention on poor people rather than elites, but it can also create new elites. And, whether populism is good for democracy (think of Dahl's criteria, for example) is highly contested among academics.
V. Updates: Venezuela Under Nicolás Maduro
Associated Readings
- Tom Chodor, "The Bolivarian Revolution as Counter-Hegemonic Project." In Neoliberal Hegemony and the Pink Tide in Latin America, pp. 91-120
- Veronica Zubillaga, “The February Protests and the Unequal Experience of Violence — Cultural Anthropology” (2015)
- Iselin Åsedotter Strønen, “After the Bolivarian Revolution: What’s in Store for Margarita?” (2015)
Key Content: My interview with Prof. Deyanira Rojas-Sosa from the SUNY New Paltz Dept. of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Link here.
Handouts ("Course Documents on Bb")
- Handout 5 ("Populism")
Venezuela, which shares borders with Colombia, Brazil, and Guyana, lies along the Caribbean Sea. Between the Andes Mountains in the northwest and the Guiana Highlands in the southeast lie central plains as well as a coastal region, with the country's climate varying from tropical to temperate.
Most U.S. citizens don’t know much about Venezuela. If they do, they may have heard about its recent--and very controversial--president, Hugo Chávez, who we’ll discuss at length below. Or, they might have heard of Simón Bolívar, a Venezuelan military and political leader who led multiple struggles in Latin America for independence from the Spanish Empire during the 19th century. And then there are the beauty pageants: In international competitions such as the Miss Universe competition, Venezuela continues to produce winners. Finally, many of you might buy gas at Citgo, which is owned by a major Venezuelan oil producer.
Colonial Past and Recent Political History
The Spanish established the first permanent settlement in Venezuela in 1522, but until the 1700s the colony remained largely undeveloped. Venezuela then became an important world producer of cacao, and Caracas emerged as a center of commerce. After several military battles with Spain under the leadership of Simón Bolívar, Venezuela declared independence in 1821. In 1830, the fledgling nation withdrew from its association with Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador in the Republic of Gran Colombia to become fully autonomous.
Throughout the nineteenth century Venezuela experienced many political upheavals. A series of authoritarian governments in the twentieth century brought more stability, with petroleum exports fueling economic expansion. In 1958, a two-party democratic system was introduced, but an economic crisis in the 1980s brought renewed unrest. In 1998, Hugo Chávez, who had been jailed six years earlier for his part in an unsuccessful coup, was elected president. I’ll have much more to say about this below.
Ethnicity and Cultural Practices
As is typical in Latin America, Spanish, native/indigenous, and African heritages have all contributed to Venezuelan life and culture, including language, art, food, and music. About half of today’s population is of mixed ethnic heritage, that is, mestizo or mulatto. About 85% of the national population (about 27 million as of 2011) live in urban areas in the northern portion of the country and currently resides in large cities such as the capital Caracas, cities that are concentrated in Venezuela's northern coastal mountain strip. Both life expectancy (73.9 years) and literacy rates (95.1%) are high. The vast majority (96%) of Venezuelans identify as Catholics, although many practice other forms of Christianity (for example, Evangelicals).
According to the World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Venezuela hosted a population of refugee and asylum seekers from Colombia numbering 252,200 in 2007. 10,600 new asylum seekers entered Venezuela in 2007. Between 500,000 and one million illegal immigrants are estimated to be living in the Venezuela.
II. Understanding Chávez and Chavismo
In your readings from Week 1, you've already had an introduction to Venezuela's deceased president, Hugo Chávez. The reading by Tom Chodor provides a detailed historical account of Chávez and his significance. As you may remember, Chavez became president after many years as a career military officer. During the 1980s, he increasingly opposed the government (and the Venezuelan political system more generally) which he found corrupt and undemocratic. In 1992, he led an unsuccessful coup attempt out of opposition to massive social spending cuts which had recently been made by the government in its structural adjustment initiatives. After two years, Chávez was released from prison and by 1998 had achieved popularity sufficient to get him elected president. An opposition movement attempted to remove him from power both through an unsuccessful military coup in 2002 and a recall referendum in 2003. The 2002 coup is the subject of the film you will watch during this week's film forum (“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”). During his time in office, Chavez was accused of manipulating the electoral process and instituting constitutional changes, including the end of presidential term limits, to retain power.
As president, Chávez undertook a massive social project known as the "Bolivarian Revolution," named after Venezuela’s most famous historical figure, Simón Bolívar. Following an ideology he and his followers called “Bolivarianism” and “Socialism for the 21st century,” his Bolivarian Revolution entailed the implementation of a new constitution, the formation of new initiatives in participatory democracy (more on this below), and the nationalization of several key industries (most notably, the oil industry). Chávez loyalists are known as Chavistas. If you have any friends from Venezuela, you will find out very quickly if they are Chavistas or not, as most Venezuelans have very strong feelings about this man!
A vocal critic of capitalism and in particular neoliberalism, Chávez was a prominent opponent of the United States' foreign policy, which he described as imperialistic. Allying himself strongly with the socialist governments of Fidel and then Raúl Castro in Cuba, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, his presidency was seen as a part of the leftist "pink tide" sweeping Latin America.
Advocating forms of direct, participatory democracy (rather than representative democracy), Chávez introduced a variety of initiatives which got ordinary citizens involved in decision-making around local resources. These initiatives included "Communal Councils" and worker-managed cooperatives. Funded from oil revenues, the Bolivarian missions aimed at expanding public services through the construction of free medical clinics, implementing educational programs to increase literacy, and administering food and housing subsidies to poor people.
Now is a good time to watch "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (film forum).
III. U.S. Perception of Chavez
To say relations between the U.S. government and Hugo Chávez were strained is an understatement. In the eyes of mainstream politicians in the U.S., both Democrats and Republicans, Chávez was perceived of as an irritating troublemaker at best--and, at worst, a dangerous, undemocratic populist with ties to terrorist regimes elsewhere in the world. (See more on populism below.)
Watch Chávez's 2006 speech at the United Nations:
Now, a clip from his weekly TV broadcast, also from 2006, in which Chávez taunts President George W. Bush further:
Finally, here's Barbara
Walters interviewing Chavez on ABC in 2007:
Chávez met U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time at the Summit of the Americas in 2009, where Chávez expressed a desire for better relations between the two countries. However, the Venezuelan president regularly engaged in anti-American rhetoric, and relations continue to be strained.
IV. Understanding the Appeal of Chavez
Even though Chavez passed away in 2013, his appeal and his followers remain strong, even as Venezuelan society becomes increasingly polarized. How do we account for the massive popularity of Hugo Chávez among Venezuela’s poor? Certainly, many poor people welcomed Chávez’s use of oil revenues to fund social services such as health clinics and schools. But these material benefits alone are not sufficient to capture the distinctive appeal of this man’s style of leadership. To help better understand this, we’ll use a concept from political science (the IR majors among you are probably already familiar with it)--populism. While populist leaders aren’t limited to Latin America, some of the most well-known and heavily-studied populists have been from this part of the world. (The discussion below corresponds closely to the “populism” handout available under “Course Documents” in Bb.)
Let’s define populism as a style of leadership “characteristically involving a proclaimed rapport with ‘the people’, a ‘them-and-us’ mentality, and (often, though not necessarily) a period of crisis and mobilization” (Alan Knight, 1998).
Populist leadership is typically based on personal charisma and skills as an orator--leaders who know how to give a stirring and inspiring speech. Think of Chávez’s “You are a donkey, Mr. Danger!” performance from his weekly radio program (clip above).
Populist leaders seek a direct bond with their mass following. They lead personal movements rather than well-organized parties. Again, Chávez is a good example: If you take him out of the "Bolivarian revolution," there would be nothing left.
Populism relies on mass mobilization--getting their followers out into the streets.
Populist leaders often have military backgrounds. Part of their appeal is that of the military caudillo, or strongman, who promises to deliver justice for the "people" by firm measures against the "exploiters."
When used to describe a leader, the term “populist” almost always has negative connotations. (Typically, it’s used to describe a politician who seeks popularity through appealing to the baser instincts of voters.) Historically, it is in Latin America where populism has had the greatest and most enduring influence. Its heyday was from the 1920s to the 1960s, as industrialization and the growth of cities got under way in the region. Against this backdrop, populism was the means by which the urban masses--the middle and working classes--were brought into the political system.
As you get a grasp on the concept of populism, resist the temptation to decide whether it is ultimately "good" or "bad." At the end of the day, populist leadership is deeply contradictory: On the one hand, it does focus attention on poor people rather than elites, but it can also create new elites. And, whether populism is good for democracy (think of Dahl's criteria, for example) is highly contested among academics.
V. Updates: Venezuela Under Nicolás Maduro
When Hugo
Chávez died in 2013, his vice president and protégé Nicolás Maduro took
over. In the ensuing four years, there has been a pattern of worsening economic
trends and political corruption in Venezuela. This came to a sort of tipping
point in 2014 when former beauty queen Monica Spear and her husband Henry Berry
were brutally murdered.
Spears represented all that is precious to many Venezuelans and showed the helplessness
that characterizes precarious life in Venezuela these days. However, as
Veronica Zubillaga reminds us in her article, most homicide victims are not
middle-class folks, they are poor men.
On the protests that
emerged after Spears’ murder, see this
clip on the origins of the protests, this
clip for some street scenes, and this
clip for images of student protests specifically. Regarding the student
protests specifically, it should be emphasized that the Venezuelan student
movement is not unified, but instead represent a range of positions and
discontents. As Zubillaga writes, “The students who are currently protesting
represent the more radical members of this broader student movement opposed to
the government. Their critiques against insecurity, the deterioration of the
quality of life, and inflation are not unwarranted. Yet they play on Cold War
anti-communist rhetoric, declaring that the democratically elected government
that encourages popular democracy is “dictatorial.” They also blame the
government for the proliferation of violence that is often linked to economic,
paramilitary, and criminal networks hostile to the government, and for an economic
crisis partly due to market mechanisms out of its control.”
You can see some recent
updates on political life in Venezuela here,
with the 2015 opposition’s successful outcomes in national elections and here
with the 2016 attempt to recall President Maduro from power.
Please also, familiarize
yourself with the story of Margarita, from Iselin Stronen’s assigned article.
Margarita’s narrative shows you an grassroots leader’s experience with the
Bolivarian Revolution, from early moments of excitement and inspiration to the
current mood of alienation and cynicism.
And here, finally, watch my hour-long interview with Prof. Deyanira Rojas-Sosa from the SUNY-New Paltz Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Link here.
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